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In iOS 12, Apple has introduced new notification features, providing an expanded set of tools for monitoring and managing notifications in quicker and more intuitive ways.
There have been no changes to the way that Notifications work on the whole, but many of these features make it easier to clear notifications, determine which notifications you want, and make adjustments on the fly.
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Grouped Notifications
iPhone and iPad owners have been asking for the return of grouped notifications for years, and in iOS 12, Apple delivered.
Multiple notifications from the same app will be grouped together on the Lock screen of the iPhone, cutting down on clutter. You can tap a set of notifications from a particular app to expand them to see all of the notifications in the list.
You can tap on the "X" next to a notification group to clear all of those notifications at one time, or do the same thing with a swipe to the left.
In the Settings app, you can change the behavior of grouped notifications. Go to Settings > Notifications and tap on any app to see the "Notification Grouping" preferences. Tap that to choose "Automatic," "By App," or "Off" if you'd rather see all of the incoming notifications for a particular app like Messages.
Automatic sorts by app for the most part, but with this setting enabled, you might get two notification groups if you have email threads going with two different people in the Mail app, or multiple conversations in Messages, for example. Or different incoming Messages

With the 2016 MacBook Pro, Apple introduced an all-new design that incorporates a Touch Bar, a small touch-sensitive OLED display that offers up contextual controls depending on what you're doing on your Mac.
Though the Touch Bar has been available, in our experience, many Mac owners don't take advantage of it, so in our latest YouTube video, we thought we'd share a few tips and tricks that might make the Touch Bar more appealing.
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Customize Your Control Bar
Most MacBook Pro owners are probably aware that this feature exists, but may not have delved into the customization options. Customizing the control strip is the best way to get the most out of the Touch Bar because you can choose the features you use most.
To get to the Control Strip settings, open up System Preferences, choose "Keyboard" and then select the "Customize Control Strip" option at the bottom of the window.
You can choose options like quick access to taking a screenshot, Night Shift, Do not Disturb, Screen Lock, Sleep, AirPlay, Spotlight, Mission Control, and more.
Set the Function Keys as Your Default
Want your function keys back as the default option? There's a setting for that. Like the Control Strip settings, it is located under Keyboard in System Preferences.
You can choose to have the Touch Bar display App Controls with Control Strip, which will change the available Touch Bar options with each app you use, or you can set it to display the function keys, an Expanded Control Strip, or just App Controls.
If you go to

Starting with macOS Sierra in 2016, Apple introduced support for Siri on the Mac, allowing you to access the personal assistant across all of your Apple devices for the first time.
Siri on Mac can actually do quite a few useful things that aren't available on iOS devices, and because the technology is still rather new on Apple's desktop and laptop machines, we thought we'd highlight some of the most useful Siri commands on the Mac.
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Siri on Mac can be accessed from the menu bar, the dedicated Siri app that can be added to the dock, or through a keyboard shortcut like Command + Space. You can manage your Siri preferences and options by opening up System Preferences and choosing "Siri" from the options at the bottom of the window.
One of the simplest and most useful ways to use Siri is to open apps without accessing the dock or finding the app in the applications folder. You can ask Siri to "open the Calendar app" or "open Evernote."
Open works with any app on your Mac, and it also works with websites and files. Some sample commands:
Open MacRumors.com
Open Google.com
Open the Applications Folder
Open the iCloud Drive folder
Siri's "Show Me" command on macOS works hand in hand with the series of open commands. You can ask Siri to show you all kinds of files stored on your Mac, which makes it easier to search for specific content. You can also ask for files within apps like Photos. Some sample commands:
Show me my most recent files
Show me files from June 2017
Show me photos

3D Touch is a feature that's been around since the 2015 release of the iPhone 6s, and it's become an integral gesture system on all of Apple's latest iPhones.
Though it's been around for a while, there are several hidden and less obvious 3D Touch gestures that you may have forgotten or might not be aware of, especially if you don't use the feature often. In our most recent YouTube video and in the guide below, we've highlighted some of the most useful and lesser known 3D Touch gestures.
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3D Touch Cursor
Whenever you're typing something using the default iOS keyboard on the iPhone, if you 3D Touch, the keyboard turns blank and morphs into a trackpad that allows you to quickly move the cursor on the screen through the text you've written.
This is a useful gesture that allows you to make quick edits without having to reach up and tap the display.
If you hold the cursor over a word for a short length of time, you can also use it to select text for deleting multiple words, copying and pasting, formatting, and other purposes.
You can use this cursor gesture in Mail, Notes, Messages, and more on 3D Touch-enabled devices running iOS 11.
Control Center
In Control Center on devices running iOS 11, you can 3D Touch on almost all of the included icons to get additional control options and shortcut access.
Some of the available options are listed below:
Wi-Fi - 3D Touch the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth box to get additional options for AirDrop and Personal Hotspot.
Music - 3D Touch for additional Music

In Apple Mail, finding email messages from certain contacts can be made easier by giving them a "VIP" status. Short for Very Important Person, VIPs are identified in your inbox by a star next to the person's name in any messages you receive from them. Messages from the same VIP are also displayed in their own folder in a special VIP smart mailbox that sits in Apple Mail's Favorites bar.
You can assign up to 100 VIPs, and if you use iCloud Contacts, your VIPs are available on any other Apple devices signed in to the same account. Moreover, you can choose to be notified of emails only when the messages are from people in your VIPs list, thanks to Apple Mail's custom alerts feature. Keep reading to learn how to set up VIPs on macOS, iOS 11 (including Apple Watch), and iCloud Mail.

Apple last week announced and debuted an attractive new iPad option -- a sixth-generation model with an affordable $329 price tag, an upgraded A10 Fusion processor, and support for the Apple Pencil, an accessory previously limited to the more expensive iPad Pro models.
For MacRumors readers who are upgrading to Apple's stellar new tablet from an older model, we've put together a video and guide covering features, accessories, and tips for getting the most out of the sixth-generation iPad.
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Apple Pencil
Apple Pencil support is the major new feature in the sixth-generation iPad, and there are a ton of useful tricks you need to know if you're new to the accessory.
PairingPairing the Apple Pencil to the iPad is as simple as uncapping it and plugging the Lightning connector into the Lightning port on your iPad. You'll see a popup that asks you to confirm to pair, and once you accept, the Apple Pencil is successfully connected to the iPad.
Charging and BatteryWhen you connect your Apple Pencil to your iPad, it'll let you know the battery level. You can also check using widgets accessed by swiping to the right of the Home screen. Scroll down to the "Batteries" section where your iPad and its connected devices (including Apple Pencil) are listed.
Don't see a battery widget? Tap on "Edit" at the bottom of the list and tap on the "+" icon next to the "Batteries" option.
The Apple Pencil's battery lasts for approximately 12 hours, and it charges through the Lightning connector on the iPad or with any

Support for the Apple Pencil was one of the major differentiating factors between the fifth-generation iPad and the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, with Apple Pencil connectivity limited to Apple's more expensive flagship tablets.
Now that Apple Pencil support has been built into the sixth-generation iPad, which costs just $329, the Apple Pencil is far more accessible and there's less separating Apple's cheapest tablet from its priciest models. In the video and post below, we go over all of the differences between the new iPad and the existing iPad Pro.
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The iPad Pro and the sixth-generation iPad may seem similar at first glance due to the shared Apple Pencil support, but the iPad Pro continues to offer a faster processor, better cameras, and a better display to justify its high price tag.
Apple's iPad Pro, for example, uses ProMotion technology with a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes all motion on the screen smoother, crisper, and more responsive.
It's dramatically different than other iPad displays with smoother text, better gameplay, and enhanced videos. True Tone technology, which adjusts the white balance of the display to match the ambient lighting is also an iPad Pro-only feature, as is wide color, for brighter, more vivid colors.
The sixth-generation iPad, meanwhile, uses the same non-laminated display that was first used in the iPad Air, albeit with improvements to make it brighter and a new touch sensor to allow for Apple Pencil support. It's Retina, but otherwise unremarkable.
The iPad Pro is also

Apple's newest iPhones can capture high-quality 60 FPS 4K video, but there are a lot of other factors that need to be taken into account to make excellent videos that can compete with what you can do with a traditional camera.
Lighting, stabilization, settings, and composition are all elements that can make or break a video, and in our latest guide on YouTube, we're sharing a series of tips you can use to make your videos better than ever.
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Without shelling out any cash, there are certain settings you can change to make sure you're getting the best quality video out of your iPhone.
Open up the Settings app, choose the "Camera" section, and you can set your video recording quality. On iPhone X and iPhone 8, you can capture 4K video at 60 frames per second. On older iPhones like the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7, your options will be more limited, with 4K video topping out at 30 frames per second.
You can also improve your videos with simple Auto Exposure and Auto Focus locking features, which will prevent abrupt changes while you're filming. After setting exposure with drag gestures on the iPhone's screen when using the Camera app, hold a finger on the focal point until the AE/AF lock banner pops up.
You'll get even more control over settings using a third-party app like FiLMic Pro ($14.99), which lets you set parameters like exposure, white balance, color, aspect ratio, and focus while also giving you live tools for monitoring video and making adjustments.
Lighting is a huge factor when it comes to

There are a lot of hidden features in both macOS and iOS that often go under the radar, either because they've not received much attention from Apple, or they've been forgotten after a period of time.
In the latest video over on our YouTube channel, we've rounded up some useful macOS tips and tricks that you might not know about.
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Universal Copy Paste - In iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, Apple introduced a universal copy paste feature. On devices where you're signed into your iCloud account, if you copy something on one device, you can paste it to another. So if you copy something on your iPhone, for example, you can swap over to your Mac to paste it.
Menu Bar - If you hold down the Command key, you can use your mouse or trackpad to rearrange the icons of the menu bar at the top of your screen.
Dragging Text - You can highlight text on your Mac and then hold down with the trackpad or a mouse to drag that text into another app. If you drag text to the desktop, it'll create a new text clip document.
Split Screen - To quickly access the split-screen multitasking mode on your Mac, click and hold the mouse cursor over the green button in the upper left hand corner of any app window.
Emoji - To insert an emoji into any document or message, hold down the Control and Command keys and then press the space bar to bring up an emoji menu interface where you can choose an emoji.
Picture-in-Picture - When you watch a video on your Mac, like the YouTube video above, click on the Picture-in-Picture button that's

When Apple released the fourth-generation Apple TV in 2015, it also included a new Siri Remote with the set-top box (although in some regions Apple kept the original name "Apple TV Remote" due to Siri not working in those territories).
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The redesigned remote features dual microphones for Siri support as well as a glass touch surface for navigating the tvOS interface by swiping, tapping, and scrubbing to fast forward/rewind content. The remote also has a Menu button, a Home button (with a TV icon on it), a Siri button, a Play/Pause button, and a Volume Up/Down button.
With the release of the Apple TV 4K in 2017, Apple tweaked the remote design to add a raised white ring around the Menu button, making it easier to identify the correct orientation of the remote by both touch and feel. The buttons and operation of the remote, however, remained unchanged, and the revised remote is also included with new units of the fourth-generation Apple TV.
In this guide, we've collected 10 of our favorite tips for controlling features of tvOS using the Apple TV Remote included with the fourth generation Apple TV and the latest fifth-generation Apple TV 4K. Keep reading and you might well discover a new trick or two.

The Finder is a classic Mac system component that's ever-present on your desktop, ready to help you find and organize your documents, media, folders, and other files. It's the smiling icon known as the Happy Mac logo on your Dock, and includes the Finder menu bar at the top of the screen.
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A lot of hidden power resides in every Finder window. In this article, we've highlighted some of our favorite Finder tips and tricks to help you work more efficiently with files and folders on your Mac.

Starting with the second beta of iOS 11.3, Apple has introduced a new "Battery Health" feature that's designed to provide you with more information about the state of your battery and whether or not it's impacting device performance.
If your iPhone has a degraded battery that is leading to throttling issues, the "Battery Health" section will let you know about it, and it will provide an option to turn off performance management to put a stop to any throttling that's going on.
There are, however, some nuances to this feature that you need to know about, which we'll outline below.
When Installing iOS 11.3
When you first install the iOS 11.3 update, all performance management features that might have been enabled are automatically disabled. So when you first install the beta, you don't need to do anything because performance management is turned off.
You will, however, need to watch out for an unexpected shutdown that turns your device off, because if this happens and you have a bad battery, performance management will be turned back on. More on this below.
Accessing Battery Health
You can check out the status of your battery in the new Battery Health section, which will tell you the maximum capacity of the battery in your iPhone and whether or not it's running at peak performance capacity. Here's how to get to it:
Open up the Settings app.
Scroll down to "Battery" and tap it.
Tap on "Battery Health."
All the info you need to know about your battery is listed here. Maximum Capacity will let you know how your battery is performing overall, and it

Force Touch is one of those Apple Watch features that's so discreet and unassuming it's easy for users to forget it even exists. That's a shame, because just like 3D Touch on iPhone, Apple has implemented the haptic feedback technology across the entire watchOS interface, putting additional hidden functionality right at your fingertips.
In this article, we've collected 10 of our favorite Force Touch features that work on Apple's digital timepiece. Some are more well known than others, but hopefully you'll learn at least one thing new about what a firm press on your Apple Watch screen can do.
1. Clear All Notifications
The Apple Watch's notifications dropdown can get busy pretty quickly, especially if you often forget to dismiss an incoming alert after reading it. Rather than deleting notifications one by one, you can clear all of them with a Force Touch gesture. Simply press firmly on the Notifications panel and tap the Clear All option.
2. Create and Remove Watch Faces
To create a custom watch face with a background picture, open the Apple Watch Photos app and select a photo. Next, press firmly on the display, tap the Create Watch Face option that pops up, and then select the Photos Face. Alternatively, you can select Kaleidoscope Face to make the picture the basis of a new animating Kaleidoscope.
When you're done, return to the current active watch face and swipe left or right to find your new creation. If you later decide you don't like your new watch face, press down on it to enter Customize Mode, and swipe up on the offending item to delete.
3.

The Apple Watch is the most popular smartwatch on the market, yet battery life has never been its strong suit. That said, Apple has made improvements in this area with successive models, and while the company still only promises all-day battery life on a single charge, many Series 2 and 3 owners find they can get a lot more.
Of course, how long a given Apple Watch lasts between charges depends almost entirely on how it's used. With that in mind, this article aims to help wearers optimize their usage and get the best battery life they can reasonably expect based on their individual needs. Read on for some of our favorite power-saving tips for Apple Watch.
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Apple Watch Display Settings
Wake Screen on Wrist Raise
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the Apple Watch's OLED display draws a significant amount of power. If it tends to light up when you least expect it, and you'd rather manually activate it with a button press or by tapping the display, then try turning off the automatic wake screen feature. To do so, open Settings on your Apple Watch, tap General -> Wake Screen, and toggle off Wake Screen on Wrist Raise. (You can also find this setting in the Watch app on your iPhone.)
Theater Mode
To some users, turning off the automatic wake screen feature might seem like overkill. Perhaps you only accidentally wake the screen during certain times of the day – when you're in bed, for instance.
In that case, you're better off making selective use of the Theater Mode. To enable it, swipe up from the

With the release of the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple now supports Qi-based wireless inductive charging on its latest phones, and that means charging pads have quickly become popular accessories for iPhone owners.
Apple's favored partners for wireless charging pads are Belkin and mophie, and Apple is carrying a $60 charger from each company in its own online and retail stores. But there are lots of other options available on the market, and we've had a chance to try out a number of them, so we're rounding them up in this guide which we'll continue to update going forward.

AirPods were a hot ticket item this holiday season, selling out from Apple and other retailers.
We're guessing quite a few MacRumors readers got new AirPods during the holidays, so we thought we'd share some super handy tips and tricks that'll help you get the most out of your new earphones.
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AirPods Requirements
To use all of the below features, you're going to need to install iOS 10.2 or later, and for some features, iOS 11 or later is required. On the Apple Watch, watchOS 3 or later is required, and on Mac, macOS 10.12 Sierra or later is required.
Devices that support iOS 10.2 or later include the iPhone 5 and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, the iPad Air and later, the 6th-generation iPod touch, and all iPad Pro models. All Apple Watch models work with AirPods, as do Macs that support Handoff functionality.
To take full advantage of AirPods, an iCloud account is required, but if you have an Apple device, you likely use iCloud regularly.
Customize Tap Functionality
Your AirPods are equipped with accelerometers and other hardware that allow them to respond to a double tap, and though it isn't obvious, these gestures can be customized to your liking. Here's how:
Make sure your AirPods are connected to your iPhone or iPad, either when you're wearing them or with the case open and nearby your device.
Open up the Settings app.
Choose "Bluetooth."
Next to the AirPods in the Bluetooth menu, tap the little "i" button.
Select "Left" and "Right" to customize what your AirPods do when

Rumors originally suggested the iPhone X would be tough to get through the holidays, but Apple significantly ramped up supply, so it's been relatively easy to get a new iPhone X ahead of Christmas.
That means lots of new iPhone X devices are getting unboxed today, and if you're coming from an iPhone 8 or later, it's a big adjustment. Those of us who have been using an iPhone X since November can confirm that it takes a bit of time to get used to all of the changes in the device, but within a week or two, you won't even miss that Home button.
We've shared a lot of details on the iPhone X over the course of the last month, and this post resurfaces some of that content along with a few new tidbits and tricks that will help you get used to your iPhone X more quickly.
The iPhone X Interface
Not having a Home button is on the iPhone X is the most immediately jarring change, because there are new and unfamiliar gestures to learn.
Instead of pressing on the Home button to get to the Home screen of the iPhone X, you swipe up from the bottom of the display. This minimizes any app that's open.
On earlier iPhones, a double tap on the Home button brought up the App Switcher, but on iPhone X, you swipe up from the bottom and then pause for a moment to get to the App Switcher. Closing apps is no longer done with a single swipe -- you'll need to hold again on an app in the App Switcher until the red "-" appears, and then tap it or swipe up on the app.
To activate the display of the iPhone X to see your notifications, you can use a new "Tap to Wake" gesture, which,

With the addition of both fast charging and wireless charging to Apple's 2017 iPhone lineup, there are more ways than ever to charge your iPhone. Every method is different -- some are faster and more expensive, while others are slower but more convenient.
We tested several charging accessories from both Apple and third-party manufacturers with the iPhone X to see how charging speeds compare across different charging methods. These tests also apply to the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, which share many of the same features available in the iPhone X.
Accessories Tested
- Apple's default 5W iPhone charger (Free with iPhone, $19 alone)
- 5W wireless charger from Choetech ($16)
- 7.5W Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Pad from Apple ($59.95) (Tested at 5W and 7.5W)
- Apple's default 12W iPad charger (Free with iPad, $19 alone)
- 18W USB-C power adapter from Choetech ($17.99)
- ">29W USB-C power adapter from Apple (Free with 12-inch MacBook, $49 alone)
- 30W USB-C power adapter from Anker ($30)
- 87W USB-C power adapter from Apple (Free with 15-inch MacBook, $79 alone)
The 5W and 12W chargers from Apple were paired with a standard Lightning cable from Apple, priced starting at $19. All USB-C charging accessories were paired with a USB-C to Lightning cable from Apple, priced starting at $25.
Methodology
We used the same iPhone X for all tests, plugged into the same outlet. Between tests, the battery was drained to one percent, and then battery percent was checked at 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes while charging.
For all tests, the iPhone X was

With the official release of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra, Apple introduced support for a new image format called HEIF. Apple sees HEIF as a worthy successor to the JPEG format. So what makes it so good that it can replace an industry standard that's been in use for almost 25 years?
What is HEIF?
HEIF stands for High Efficiency Image Format and can be considered the still-image version of the HEVC video codec that Apple's ecosystem now officially supports. (You can learn more about HEVC here.) The HEIF standard wasn't made by Apple – it was developed in 2015 by the MPEG group, which also invented the AAC audio format used in iTunes.
Benefits of HEIF Over JPEG
As the name implies, HEIF is a more streamlined method of storing image data and offers better quality than the traditional JPEG format. For example, HEIF supports image transparency and can capture a more extended color range than JPEG (16-bit versus 8-bit), which should increase the accuracy of photos taken on Apple's latest iPhones. At the same time, a HEIF-encoded image should be around half the file size of an equivalent-quality JPEG, so users will be able to keep twice the number of shots on their Apple devices (or in iCloud) before they max out their storage capacity.
In addition, HEIF files include a 320x240 embedded thumbnail that's four times the resolution but only twice the file size of a standard JPEG thumbnail. HEIF images can also be rotated and cropped without altering the image or re-saving them, all of which makes working with HEIF files that much faster than JPEG on both Mac and iOS

With the arrival of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra, Apple is supporting a new video format called HEVC, which replaces the previous standard most commonly used on Mac and iOS devices, namely H.264 / AVC. So why has Apple adopted the HEVC format, and what difference will it make to the end user?
What is HEVC?
High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265, is a next-generation video compression standard developed by a group of encoding experts called the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding. The HEVC video format has been in existence since around 2013, and HEIF is the still-image version of the standard that both iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra also support. (You can learn more about HEIF here.)
Benefits of HEVC
Apple's decision to adopt HEVC basically means two things - higher quality video and better compression rates. The HEVC standard enables a video to be compressed into a file that is about half the size (or half the bit rate) of H.264 / AVC. To put that another way, a HEVC video file offers significantly better visual quality than an AVC file of equivalent size or bit rate. While results vary depending on the type of content and the encoder settings, videos encoded in HEVC typically exhibit fewer compression artifacts and offer smoother playback than videos encoded using AVC.
According to Apple, HEVC can compress 4K video files to up to 40 percent smaller file sizes than AVC without losing quality, which means users who upgrade their devices to iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra will be able to take the same high-quality videos without using up as

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